


It's a Beautiful New Day

by ghostmaya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean is a religion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), Established Relationship, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, POV Lance (Voltron), Rated teen and up for language, Summer, but there will still be klance fluff, it’s more of a gen fic than a klance fic oops, there’s a plot if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13441065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostmaya/pseuds/ghostmaya
Summary: “Alright, so there are six of us, two canoes, two packs with tents and stuff, one pack with kitchen stuff called the U-Pack. And of course the food barrel,” Shiro announced, gesturing to everything, “Who wants to carry what?”Lance didn’t actually get a chance to look at said gear because there were about five mosquitoes swarming around him. He only managed to kill three while the other two bit him on his shoulder and back. They hadn’t even left yet and nature was already trying to kill him.~Or: Lance and the gang go on a camping trip. Shenanigans ensue.





	It's a Beautiful New Day

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song Mr. Bluesky ;)  
> Alternatively: two tents, six kids, and a whole lot of mosquitoes  
> ~  
> My buddy Kyo made some great art of Allura from this fic that I'll link at the end notes, pls check it out!!  
> ~  
> This is my attempt at writing something funny, also it’s completely self indulgent and based on my own experiences camping but slightly over-exaggerated.  
> It’s my first Voltron fic, and my first fic on AO3 so gimme some feedback!  
> Hope you enjoy!

“Keith! Where did you put the spare toothbrushes?!” Lance called, poking his head out from the depths of the bathroom sink cupboard he’s rummaging through.

He didn’t bother waiting for an answer as he stuck his torso back in and checked behind the soaps to find nothing. He grew more aggravated as he moved the spare face lotion to a new location for the umpteenth time finding exactly what he found last time. Lance groaned and moved the soap back to where it was before.

“I didn’t move them, they should still be under the sink!” called back Keith’s crescendoing voice as he presumably approached the bathroom.

Lance got to his feet and stared helplessly into the cursed cupboard with his arms crossed. He pouted at Keith as he walked into the bathroom.

Keith didn’t even acknowledge Lance before he stooped down, rummaged through the cupboard for about fifteen seconds flat before coming up with their red and blue toothbrushes in hand.

“Why is it physically impossible for you to find anything ever?”

Lance could only look dumbstruck at the cupboard. “Nope. Nonononono. I looked through that cursed cupboard for like half an hour and those toothbrushes were definitely _not_ there when I was looking. I bet you were hiding them in your sleeve to mess with me or something.”

Keith rolled his eyes but there was still a smile in his voice when he said, “Uh huh, whatever you say Lance.”

The playfulness in his eyes disappeared as another thought interrupted the banter-to-be. “I’m gonna head out to run some quick errands, don’t forget to load the laundry. I want my muck shirt to be clean for the camping trip.” Keith wrinkled his nose, probably thinking about what it would be like to have an already dirty shirt suffer through a week in the wilderness.

“Oh true, I’ll put that on my to do list,” Lance said as he took the toothbrushes and stuffed them into the plastic bag with the assorted things Lance had managed to find from the packing list already. “The clothes I wanna bring are dirty too, now that I think about it.”

Keith tapped Lance’s shoulder expectantly. After a year of living together Lance knew exactly what that meant and turned to meet Keith’s lips in a quick goodbye kiss without even thinking about it.

“See you in a bit,” Keith said with a small smile and Lance returned it before they both exited the bathroom. Lance headed towards their bedroom to collect the dirty laundry while Keith headed the opposite direction towards the entrance of their apartment.

The front door swung open and shut with a satisfactory click as Lance lugged the basket of clothes out of his room.

Of course the idiots who designed the place decided to put the washing and drying machines on the other side of the apartment, so what would have otherwise been a simple task turned into something along the lines of parkour.

Finally he reached the machines and almost dropped the basket as he shifted it to balance on a propped up leg and arm as he opened the lid with his other hand. He dumped it in and relaxed the tension in body as the last sock landed safely in the confinements of the white machine.

All that was left to do was put in the detergent and start up the machine, then he was free for the rest of the day. Well, free from chores at least, he’d still have to call Shiro to confirm a couple of things for the trip later.

He took the plastic cup and held it under the detergent-holding pump.

In Lance’s opinion, nothing could be less satisfying than when he pressed down on that pump, expecting the gooey liquid to come out and fill the container, only to get a puff of air and a plastic cup of nothing.

“Why,” Lance whispered bitterly, glaring at the empty contents of the cup, “Why must this always happen?”

* * *

 

The dusty computer screen that Lance hadn’t cleaned in a year unfortunately still managed to display Shiro’s annoying face and his apartment. The computer could probably use a couple more layers of grime because Lance did _not_ want to see the look Shiro was currently giving him.

This wasn’t just any old look, oh no. This was The Look™. It was impossible to know Shiro for any period of time without getting The Look™. It was the same every time, but the effectiveness was never lost.

His arms were crossed like a mother would do when scolding her child, and his eyebrows were raised in a way that made even the most confident person feel like they were in the wrong.

The one where even though Shiro had to look up at Lance through the built-in laptop camera, it still felt as if Shiro was looking down on him.

Every time Shiro gave Lance that look Lance felt like a little kid again. ‘Little kid’ meaning he became extremely stubborn, and did everything in his power to get what he wanted.

The instinctive argumentative expression had already crept up on Lance’s face. There was no saving him now.

Shiro made sure to spell out every word of his next sentence. “Lance, you can’t bring a guitar on this trip.”

It was in these moments that Shiro’s resemblance to Lance’s mother became uncanny.

Lance pouted. He knew he wasn’t going to win this but there was no way he was going to let Shiro know that. “Why not~?”

Shiro sighed and rubbed his temple. “We’re portaging remember? Did you even read the email I sent?” Lance smiled sheepishly. Shiro sighed. “That means we’re going to be carrying our canoes and packs for several miles at a time. How are we supposed to carry around a guitar on top of all that?”

Lance faltered for a second. “Uh the...people carrying...the...canoes...can carry it?”

If Shiro had been giving Lance The Look™ before, than the look he was giving Lance now must be a new breed of The Look™. This was The Look™: New and Exclusively for Lance McClain!

This was not going to discourage Lance though. He had exactly zero ideas, but it’s the perseverance that counts, right?

Shiro obviously saw that Lance was running out of ideas, and there was also the fact that camping was literally Shiro’s summer job. That may have given him a bit of an advantage.

Even so, there’s absolutely no way Lance was backing out of this one.

He would have to turn to his last resort. Begging.

“C’mon Shiro! You _know_ camping just isn’t the same without a sing-along around the campfire!”

Shiro didn’t miss a beat. “We can do that without a guitar.”

“It’s still not the same, Shiro. It just-” he paused for dramatic effect- “isn’t.”

Shiro’s face looked almost cartoon like as he suddenly switched from The Look™ to sighing into a slump. The triumphant smile that broke out on Lance’s face couldn’t get wider when Shiro said, “You’re never going to let this go, will you?”

“Nope!” Lance was living on clouds. Nothing could’ve brought him down.

“Lance, I see that smile. I’m still not letting you bring a guitar.” Lance’s smile fell. That was it, he was done, he was out of ideas. The entire trip might as well be canceled.

“But. You _can_ bring your ukulele.”

Lance didn’t let Shiro see his automatic grin because he pushed himself off of his desk and spun around on his well worn spinny chair with a whoop. He let his head hang backwards as he spun around for a couple of times. The chair slowed down and Lance was looking at Shiro upside down.

The blood rushed to Lance’s head so he sat up to face the other side of the room. Even though Lance wasn’t looking at Shiro he could still tell Shiro had his arms crossed in that motherly way. He spun himself to look at Shiro, who was wearing that exact expression. He sighed and chuckled out, “Don’t blame me when whoever’s carrying the pack with your ukulele breaks their back.”

“Ya, ya, whatever,” said Lance. “Also that rhymed.” He stuck out his tongue.

Shiro rolled his eyes and hung up.

A calendar reminder showed up at the top of his computer screen that said ‘Leave for Camping Trip - tomorrow at 6 am’.

In less than twelve hours he was going to be in Shiro’s minivan, on his way to Canada. He was going to see Allura in person for the first time in months. In fact, he hadn’t seen Shiro in person for months either.

He was really, really excited.

* * *

 

“Lance buddy, I love you, but you failed,” said Hunk after taking one look at Lance’s bag. He threw it back at Lance as he said, “You didn't get all the air out. Undo the knot and try again.”

He hovered over Lance as Lance undid his poorly done slip knot for the third time.

“I don’t understand how you did it so well,” Lance whined, picking at the edges of the bag.

“Maybe,” Hunk started, stretching out the word and continuing with exaggerated hand motions, “if you didn’t put so much _stuff_ in there then this would’ve been _easier_ , hm?”

“Oh come on,” said Lance, mimicking Hunk’s exaggerated tone, “I didn’t put anything in there that wasn’t on the packing list.”

“Maybe it’s like that _now,_ but a certain someone told me that he had to take out half of the stuff you originally planned to bring.”

“Darn it Keith! Just when I start thinking I can trust you again, you go and stab me in the back,” wailed Lance, as Hunk crouched down next to Lance on the curb.

Lance tried to pull the bag away from Hunk but Hunk grabbed it and peered inside. “Okay Lance, a ‘couple of games’ does not translate to ‘every single game you own’ dude. Did you even _read_ the email?”

“It’s a possibility?” Lance said, dismissing the question and snatching back the bag, “Whatever, it’s fine, I can do this. It’s just hug, twist, tie. Easy-” he started squeezing the air out of the bag again, “-peasy.”

“Yeah, mhm, ‘easy peasy’ except for the fact that you managed to screw it up the last three times,” teased Hunk.

“Hunk~, why all the hate?”

“Because I love you.”

“Can’t argue with that,” shrugged Lance. There was a beat of silence between the boys and then the two of them burst into laughter. It took them a good thirty seconds to recover, and Lance turned his attention back to his bag.

He scowled. “Ugh, why do we have to put all our stuff in these stupid plastic bags anyways?”

He rolled back onto the grass, and squeezed the bag as tight as he could. The air leaked out aggravatingly slowly and his muscles started hurting.

“Because otherwise they won’t fit in the pack?” answered Hunk immediately, his perfect comebacks continuing to sweep Lance off his non existent pedestal. “Dude, look at those two bags. They’re only like, half Pidge-sized and they’re meant to fit all of our stuff, not just our bags but our sleeping bags, our raincoats, _and_ shoes also!”

Lance rocked backwards a bit to give himself the momentum to roll back up into a sitting position. He held the top of the bag shut so tightly his knuckles started turning white as he nonchalantly said, “And my ukulele.”

“Your- Lance, why? Oh my gosh we’re gonna die out there because of you, aren’t we?”

“I see you, and your issue,” started Lance, trying to spin the remaining part of the plastic bag to tie a proper slip knot, “and I want you to take that worry and let it float up, up and into the clouds, far away where you’ll never see it again. Poof! There, it’s gone.”

Hunk flicked Lance’s shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Just give me your bag Lance, we’re gonna be late to pick up Allura.”

“Never!” He tried to move the bag away from Hunk’s reach, and as he flung it in the air it unraveled and fell open.

He stared at it with a scowl on his face, and purposely twitched his eye.

“I told ya so,” said Hunk.

“Bitch when?”

Hunk just raised his eyebrows and held out his arms expectantly.

Lance sighed and handed the bag to him.

The window of Shiro’s van rolled down and Keith stuck his head out the window. He looked back to where Lance and Hunk were on the curb and called, “What’s taking you guys so long?”

“Sorry, we’ll be in in a second!” Lance called back.

He turned back to Hunk, and wasn’t even surprised to see that he was already shoving Lance’s perfectly closed bag into the open pack.

He couldn’t even bring himself to _act_ surprised when Hunk closed and tightened the pack in less than two seconds, which Lance had tried and failed to do with the other one.

Then Hunk, an actual superhuman, fully lifted up the forty pound bag like it was nothing, with _one hand_ , opened the sliding door with his other hand, and threw it inside the car.

Pidge shrieked in the back.

* * *

 

“Holy shit, I thought you said Allura was living in a mansion, not a fucking castle!” said Lance, gazing up at the giant mansion Allura was supposedly staying in. Even though the entire street was occupied by impressive mansions, the stark white building with blue accents that he was currently gaping at stood out immensely.

“Ha, I wish,” came Allura’s accented voice from beside him. Lance looked down at her and was taken aback by the two dutch braids she wore, the simple hairstyle complementing her casual outfit of a tee-shirt, sport shorts and a baseball cap with cheap sunglasses perched on top.

She was also wearing next to no makeup, so her pink religious face tattoos stood out more than usual.

Lance didn’t think he’d ever seen Allura dressed in anything this casual before, and he sighed internally as Allura continued to be absolutely stunning with minimal effort.

Allura continued, “This is my uncle’s place, remember? My flat in England, is, erm, how shall I put it?” Her expression turned grim, almost as if she were in mourning. In fact, there seemed to be more that she wasn’t elaborating on.

“Disappointingly small?” pitched in Keith.

Allura seemed oddly relieved when Keith cut in. She smiled a bit too stiffly and chuckled out awkwardly, “That works too.”

“Oh, who cares about that,” Hunk said, waving his hand dismissively, “We’re literally standing in front of a giant mansion-” he gestured his arms at the mansion strenuously- “and we’re _not_ going in? I vote we all raid Allura’s house.”

“Ya, c’mon Allura. You can’t have us pick you up from a giant mansion and _not_ give us the grand tour,” Pidge said, already walking up to the front door.

“Guys, I’d love to get a tour of the mansion too but we don’t have enough time,” Shiro said before Pidge could reach the door, “We still have to cross the border, and I’d like to make it to the starting point by lunch.”

“I mean, it really isn’t all that interested in there anyways. I’m staying there by myself right now because Coran is actually camping himself at the moment,” said Allura.

“Okay, hold up. One: who’s Coran? And two: will we, like, meet him on our trip?” asked Hunk.

Allura chuckled. “Oh that’s right, only Shiro and Keith have met him. He’s my uncle, the one who lives here, and I remember him saying that he was going on an advanced route so it’s unlikely we’ll run into him.”

Allura and Hunk continued their conversation as they walked towards the car, and Lance found himself watching Allura as she slipped into the front seat.

She was obviously hiding something. He wasn’t going to pry now, but he was going to get it out of her some time this next week.

A flick to his arm broke him out of his trance. A smirking Keith stood next to him, his arms crossed naturally. “Stop checking out Allura and actually go to the car.”

Lance looked at his boyfriend, who was wearing a paint-splattered shirt with his hair tied up messily. Keith wore that outfit, as well as the other one he packed, every time he painted. He was stunningly beautiful, as always.

“Aw Keith, you know, if you had let me braid _your_ hair like Allura’s I might’ve been staring at you instead.” He wrapped his arms around Keith and kissed him on the nose.

Keith wrapped his arms around reciprocally but scrunched up his nose and stuck out his tongue.

Lance laughed and said, “Don’t worry babe, I can still tolerate you.”

Keith scoffed and rolled his eyes, but didn’t continue the banter like he would have usually. Instead, he slipped out of Lance’s hold and grabbed his hand, pulling him along towards the car. “C’mon, they’re gonna drive away without us.”

Lance smiled. Sometimes he could forget how much he loved that boy.

* * *

 

The car ride was pretty dull.

Lance sat crammed in the back of Shiro’s stuffy minivan; for some reason Shiro decided that putting down the middle seat would be ‘easier for putting two giant forty pound pillow packs than heaving them into the trunk.’

Even if it were more convenient, which it _wasn’t_ , Lance was still forced to sit in the back with two other people for three long, uneventful hours.

While the audiobook of 11-22-63 by Stephen King played into Lance’s ears, he played Colour Switch to keep him focused. Playing a mindless game while listening to a book was kind of like reverse white-noise, in a sense.

The book was just getting to a good part when Keith, previously acting as Lance’s warm body pillow, betrayed him as a friend and lover to pull out one of Lance’s earbuds.

Lance’s offended expression turned to annoyance as Keith asked, “My phone’s losing power, could I have your charger?”

Lance took a moment to pause his book and pull down his settings bar to stare at his 84 percent in annoyance, then shifted his gaze to Keith’s 32 percent. He grumpily blinked at Keith’s phone a couple of times as if it would magically charge, which it obviously didn’t.

“Fine,” he groaned, and handed the cord over.

Lance played his book again and watched Keith play Flow Free while he presumably listened to his own book. It was only a couple of minutes later before the realization hit him. He paused his book again before he said, “Hey. Wait a minute, what happened to _your_ charger?”

Keith swiped down the settings bar to pause his book. “What?”

“How come you don’t have your own charger?” Lance repeated, staring accussitorily at Keith.

“Hunk forgot his so I leant mine to him.”

Lance was about to call out to Hunk but stopped himself when he saw Hunk drooling on himself in the seat in front of Lance. Lance drooped his body over dramatically, and as he brought his head back up he spotted Hunk’s phone on the floor in front of Keith. His face lit up as he stretched out uncomfortably to make a grab for it. It somehow got wedged under the pillow pack they’d placed there, but with some effort he managed to yank it out.

It was at 29 percent.

“How is that even possible!?”

“Keith’s portable charger sucks ass,” Pidge said offhandedly, her eyes still glued to her own device.

“Ugh, I’m so done! I’ll just let my phone run out of power before the trip.” He shoved the earbud back into his ear, played his book and then he pulled out his pillow and shoved it onto Keith’s shoulder as if to make a point. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but at least the warmth from Keith’s body was nice.

“You...uh... do realize that we aren’t going to have our phones on the trip, right?” Keith asked cautiously, as he shifted into their new position.

Lance sprung up. He most certainly did not know this.

“No? What? No?! What?!”

The car jerked a little and Lance instinctually shot his eyes towards the front seat.

“Lance! Please don’t do that, I’m trying to drive!” Shiro yelled back sternly through this gritted teeth, obviously startled. Allura had looked up from her phone and glanced between Lance and Shiro with mild interest before sighing and going back to whatever she was doing.

Lance huffed overdramatically and flopped his face back onto Keith’s pillow-covered shoulder, Keith instinctually pressing back against Lance.

“It was in the email, wasn’t it?” Lance asked, his face still pressed into Keith’s shoulder.

He took the silence as a yes.

The last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was the nice feeling of Keith’s thumb tracing circles on his waist, rather than the actual plot of his book.

* * *

 

“Alright, so there are six of us, two canoes, two packs with tents and stuff, one pack with kitchen stuff called the U-Pack. And of course the food barrel,” Shiro announced, gesturing to everything, “Who wants to carry what?”

Lance didn’t actually get a chance to look at said gear because there were about five mosquitoes swarming around him. He only managed to kill three while the other two bit him on his shoulder and back. They hadn’t even left yet and nature was already trying to kill him.

Apparently he was the only culprit because Pidge and Keith’s answer came almost instantly, the former being: “Whatever’s lightest,” and the latter being: “I’ll take whatever.”

Lance turned towards Pidge skeptically. Although Pidge would have ended up with the lightest pack in the end, she would have never admitted that fact unless something was going on. A trait she and Lance shared.

One thing Pidge did have over Lance though were her interpretation skills, so before Lance could even form his question, Pidge waved a dismissive hand and explained, “I’m on my period.”

She looked up at Lance and smirked playfully as she continued, “Plus, I can actually admit that I’m weak, unlike _some_ people.”

Lance feigned offence by clutching his heart as he sobbed, “How dare thee throw around such accusations!” He was talking about the actual insult, but he struck a pose and announced with a grin, “I am no weakling!”

“Ha, sure you aren’t,” Pidge said through her smirk, quirking her eyes into an challenge.

“I’m not!”

“Prove it.” Her smirk grew as she crossed her arms, awaiting Lance’s predictable response.

Lance looked Pidge in the eye and straightened his face to silently accept the challenge. He continued to look Pidge in the eyes as he yelled across the mostly empty parking lot, “Shiro! I want to portage!”

“That’s great Lance!” Shiro yelled back.

Lance turned to watch Shiro approach him, the parking lot must be bigger than he thought because it seemed to take Shiro forever, and when he finally stood in front of Lance he said, “Do you mind only doing it for half the time though, because Allura wanted to have a go at portaging also.”

Lance answered immediately with a genuine smile, “Ya, of course!”

“Perfect,” Shiro said, flashing a smile and turned to Pidge saying, “And you’ll carry one of the pillow packs, sound good?”

Pidge barely had a chance to nod before Allura came up behind Shiro, her face contorted. She waited for Shiro to notice her presence, which only happened when Shiro saw Lance and Pidge’s fixed gazes behind him. He turned, and jumped a bit from shock, but Allura kept the grimace on her face. Her face scrunched up even more as she said, “Bathroom’s free.”

Lance followed Shiro’s gaze to the sad excuse for a bathroom, and just by looking at it he could smell the contents in the wooden stall. It was right next to the entrance to the portage trail, making it look even more remote.

“Yikes. Good luck buddy,” Lance said, making a face at the bathroom.

Allura shuddered beside him as they watched Shiro approach the stall, and said, “I think I’m going to prefer peeing in trees.”

“Allura,” Pidge said, staring up past Lance to Allura through her fake glasses. She waited until Allura gave her all of her attention before she looked off into the distance and continued, “Believe me when I say this: you won’t.”

Before either Lance or Allura could question her, Pidge was off.

Lance and Allura just stood there in shock for a few moments, before Allura slowly said, “I thought she’s never been camping before.”

Lance gulped as he watched Pidge approach Hunk, her hands stuck in her pockets. “She hasn’t.”

Lance and Allura side-eyed each other slowly, with the same disturbed and confused expressions on their faces.

They never looked at Pidge the same way.

* * *

 

Lance was sitting uncomfortably on his life jacket as he stared skeptically at his apparent lunch.

“Shiro. Why?” Hunk asked from beside him.

“It’s… actually not bad,” Keith said from his other side.

“When I first had these I thought the same thing as you guys,” Shiro said to Hunk and Lance, “But I swear, the ingredients really do work!”

“Stop being babies and eat it,” Pidge said, who was already halfway done hers.

Hunk turned to Shiro and said, “Shiro, buddy, I’m all for experimenting with food. I really am, it’s literally my hobby. But sweaty cheese, Mrs. Vickie's chips, honey, mustard and hot sauce on a tortilla is just… extremely wrong in every way.”

“Well, it’s all we have so you two will just have to deal with it.”

Lance groaned and bit into his tortilla. It was delicious. He hated that it was delicious.

“I hate it,” he announced as he ate the rest of the wrap in about five bites.

Lance turned to Hunk, placed a hand on his arm and said solemnly, “Sorry I betrayed you.”

Hunk sniffled, “It’s okay. I knew it was only a matter of time before you’d give in.”

“Hey--”

“Hunk. We’re going to be working a lot today and having food in your body is extremely important,” said Allura.

“Uuugh. Fine. But this is only because I value self care a _tiny_ bit more than I value food culture.”

Hunk finished his wrap in a similar manner to Lance.

“Shiro. How?” Hunk stared helplessly at his empty hands. “Why does this work? I don’t understand.”

“Knew you’d like it.” Shiro smirked.

His smirk was immediately replaced with a sharp clap of his hands stood and said, “Alright guys, we gotta move out, we have an 100 metre portage before our first paddle. It’ll be pretty easy but the wind seems to be picking up so the paddle will probably be annoying.”

Before Shiro could go any further, Lance stuck up his hand mockingly and said, “Someone translate to imperial please, my American brain has no concept of what 100 metres might be.”

They all looked at Pidge.

She took a moment to realize what happened. She made sure to give all of them the deadest look in the eye before she said the world’s driest, “Seriously?”

“Pidge you’re not fooling us dude. We know you know,” said Lance.

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s around 330 feet. But I only know this because I did the top 100 google questions challenge.”

“Mhm, sure. Whatever you say Pidge.”

“Let’s just go already.”

* * *

 

So it turned out that carrying a sixty pound canoe on Lance’s shoulders was extremely painful.

Lance had made sure to put the canoe on top of his life jacket flap, just like Shiro told him to, and yet the wooden bar that sat on his slightly padded shoulders still cut into him, making each step a task.

“Lance are you okay? Do you need a teepee?” Keith said, his magic boyfriend eyes giving him the power to see all of Lance’s struggles.

“No, I’m-” Lance grunted. “-I’m fine.”

He wasn’t fine.

He stared down at his now numb feet and focused on walking without tripping on the constant rocks and roots. It wasn’t like he could look anywhere else; his entire view was blocked.

Lance knew Keith was there to warn him for anything he needed to avoid, that was the whole point for why they were walking together. Even so, he still managed to hit a couple of trees when the path winded.

Thank goodness Shiro convinced him to buy hiking boots because Lance would have definitely fallen several times if his shoes didn’t have such a good grip on the ground.

In front of him, he noticed a step up, and he groaned internally. He walked up to it and raked his eyes up and down the step to find the best place to put his foot. He figured that stepping in front of a rock would secure his foot, so he put one foot up, and then pushed himself off the ground.

He heard his heartbeat in his ear in that moment when he was holding up an entire boat with one foot on the ground, and time seemed to slow down as his knee went from bent to straight as he lifted his entire body along with the canoe up until he placed his second foot on the raised pathway safely.

His breath of relief was cut short as the canoe tipped back a bit, and his stomach flipped involuntarily. He slowly inched his arms forward on his hold of the boat and eased it back to its balanced position.

Unfortunately, it now sat uncomfortably on his shoulders. He knew it wasn’t going to fall off, but it _felt_ like it would, and flash of panic flooded through Lance again. His body was aching to much to dwell on it though, and he focused all of his attention on walking forward.

Walking got easier as he let his mind drift. It was almost nice, having time to think for himself for a while. Back at home there was always something he needed to focus on.

“...Why is it called teepee anyways?” Keith’s voice brought Lance out of his trance.

Lance rolled his eyes with a smile dancing on his lips. He knew that Keith was voicing his thoughts, something he only let himself do around people he’s really close with.

“Because when you hold up the canoe-” Lance grunted- “it looks like a teepee?”

“Oh. Fuck.”

“Pfff,” Lance laughed, but cut himself short with a yelp. “Stop making me talk Keith! I’m gonna drop the canoe!”

“Mhm ya, _I’m_ making you talk,” said Keith dryly.

The canoe felt really uncomfortable now, and Lance knew he needed to readjust properly this time.

“Ugh now you made it sit wrong on my shoulders. Come and teepee me.”

Keith ignored him and continued, “You didn’t _have_ to answer my question Lance, this is all on you.”

“Keith~ I’m gonna drop it come here already.”

The weight of the canoe was suddenly off his shoulders, and relief flooded through him. Lance didn’t know how much he had missed the ability to roll his neck and shoulders.

Keith was right in front of him, focused on lifting the canoe. He caught Lance’s stare and smiled back.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself, handsome,” Lance flirted.

“Yeah,” Keith scoffed. Lance noticed the strain in his arms holding up the canoe. “my sweat must really highlight my best features.”

Lance smirked.

He took a small step forward, and pressed a small kiss to Keith’s unsuspecting mouth.

“Mmph-- Lance! I am holding up a canoe!”

“Uh huh,” said Lance smugly, “now you know how I feel.”

“Oh my god just put it back on, my arms are dying.”

“Fine, fine.” Despite how much he loved teasing Keith, he really did look like he was about to drop the boat and crush the two of them.

Lance repositioned himself, and Keith ducked out from under the boat, allowing Lance to rebalance it.

He listened as Keith presumably lifted his pack back onto his back with a grunt. Lance took that as the go ahead and focused on his own task, continuing forward, be it a little wobbly at first. The teepee didn’t really help with the comfort unfortunately, and now the canoe felt heavier than it was before.

He stared at the ground and focused on one obstacle at a time, letting his mind wander again.

This obstacle, however, seemed almost impossible to conquer.

He was looking at a bridge over a small stream, which probably used to have two planks of wood based on the eaten away wood on the other side. It left only one plank, just wide enough to fit one foot.

Yeah, there was no way he was doing this alone. “Keith!”

“What?” Keith’s voice sounded distant, he must have fallen a bit behind.

“I need you to guide me across this bridge, thanks,” he called with the breath he had left, not bothering to turn around.

It took Keith a few moments to catch up to Lance, and he could tell that Keith was evaluating the bridge by the way he was standing next to him.

“You’ll be fine. Just walk sideways or something. It’s literally two steps.”

“Dude this is a _danger hazard_ ,” Lance wheezed, “people should really take more care of these paths-” another breath- “this is ridiculous.”

“Ugh, okay, fine. I’ll walk across and I’ll hold my hands out like one of my foster moms did when I was learning to swim, would that make you feel better?”

“Yes please!”

“You better not hit me in the head with your canoe,” Keith said as he crossed the bridge effortlessly.

Lance studied Keith’s feet to see where he’d have to put his, it wasn’t like he could look any higher anyways. It took Keith all of two seconds, and then it was his turn.

“Okay,” he said, psyching himself up, “I’m going across. I am walking forward.”

“Lance. Stop talking, you sound like a dying horse. You’ll be fine. I’m right here, okay?”

Lance pursed his lips, but didn’t answer. He shuffled forwards.

The bridge seemed to bend under his weight as he placed a foot on the board. He nervously calculated his options, and shuffled forward a bit more, bringing his other foot onto the bridge as well. He tightened his grip on the canoe, trying to keep it as balanced as possible. Shuffle, balance, repeat.

He didn’t know how, but it was over.

“Haha! Jokes on you-” wheeze- “ _bridge_ , you think you’re too good for me but I conquered you! I’m-” he coughed, “unstoppable!!”

“You see, you were fine,” said Keith. Lance could practically hear a small smile in the tone of his voice.

“Thanks Keith.”

“Always happy to help my damsel in distress,” Keith teased, and started walking on.

“Hey!”

“C’mon Lance,” beckoned Keith, “we’re almost at the end.”

“Oh thank _god_ , my shoulders can’t take much more. They’re gonna be so bruised.”

“Same honestly,” admitted Keith, “this pack is heavier than I thought it’d be.”

“You probably got my ukulele.” Lance smirked.

“Lance, what?”

Lance snickered.

Before Keith had a chance to respond, another pair of feet made their way into Lance’s field of view, and he recognized them as Hunk’s.

“Hey guys, you’re almost there!” Hunk said cheerfully, “I’m just heading back to find Pidge and walk with her. You haven’t seen her recently, have you?”

“No, sorry. She fell behind us pretty early on,” Keith said.

“I’m sure she’s not that far off,” said Hunk, now behind them, “See you soon!”

Lance and Keith continued forward. They turned a bend and Lance’s view was filled by unfiltered sunlight, leading down to a stone rest stop where he saw Shiro and Allura.

“Lance, Keith, put your stuff down here,” Shiro called when he saw them approach. Lance carefully made his way around the rocky surface to where Shiro had parked the other boat in the water. “I’ll help you with the boat Lance.”

Shiro teepeed the canoe and Lance ducked out from under it, finally free from its brutal weight. He basically stumbled onto sitting on the u-pack, and just looked off into the distance while he caught his breath, barely noticing Shiro flipping over the boat and dragging it into the lake.

That portage was probably the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life, they must have started with an advanced trail or something.

About five or ten minutes later Hunk and Pidge emerged from the trail. Pidge looked horrible, she basically threw off her pack when she got to them and flopped on top of it, heaving for air.

Lance got up and peered down at Pidge. “Welp. Pidge is dead.”

“Water.” was her elongated and horse response.

Lance raised his eyebrows skeptically, even though he was just feeling like that minutes ago. “Your water bottle is literally clipped to your pack. Which you are lying on.”

She didn’t move.

Lance decided to be nice and unclipped the filled litre sized water bottle, another item he and Keith had to buy for this trip, and started swinging it around by the metal clip.

Pidge, who was probably just laying there for dramatic effect now, heaved herself over to lie on her back, and took a moment to reposition herself before she fell limp again.

Lance walked up to her and evaluated her position, and decided on the perfect spot. He crouched down next to her and carefully balanced the water bottle on her stomach. He waited for her to do or say something, but she just continued looking dead.

Lance squatted next to her face and said in a high pitched voice that was supposed to mimic her, “Thank you Lance, you’re the best friend ever. You are literally my favourite person.” He stood and crossed his arms. “You’re welcome, Pidge. Always happy to help friends in need.”

“Nope,” Pidge said, taking the water bottle off her stomach and opening it, “that was payback from that time when you got me to hack into your brother’s facebook account so you could post something embarrassing.” She popped the lid open and started chugging.

“So… what you’re saying is that we’re even now?” Lance asked hopefully.

Pidge almost spat out the water in her mouth to say, “Ha!” She wiped her mouth and continued, “As if I’d waste a favour on something like that if you didn’t have at least twenty favours stacked up on you.”

“Gosh darn it.”

“I told you to stop censoring yourself around me I actually hate you.” Pidge stood and started cracking her neck and releasing tension in her torso.

“Alright guys!” called Shiro. “We’re gonna get going now. This paddle shouldn’t be too long, and then we have another portage and then we can look for a campsite on the lake after that. The next portage is going to be harder, so I hope this was a good warmup.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. That trail was supposed to be _easy?_ Could this possibly get any worse?

“Also, if you remember, I mentioned in the email that I’m doing a maintenance check on this route, so just a reminder that that broken bridge we had to cross probably isn’t going to be the last one you’ll see. You all seemed to make it across fine though, so I’m sure it’s no problem.”

Lance hated his brain for thinking that. Of course it could’ve gotten worse.

He really should have read that email.

**Author's Note:**

> [Kyo's wonderful art](https://kyokurei.tumblr.com/post/167914751581/hi-hello-i-dont-know-what-im-doing-help-me)  
>  ~  
> hmu on tumblr [@ghost-maya](http://ghost-maya.tumblr.com) if you have any questions, comments, fanart ;))), etc or just wanna chat :)


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